The Fall Out at Oral Roberts University Is Increasing

Bob Felton at Civil Commotion has a new post (http://www.civilcommotion.com/index.php?p=3326) that indicates the fall out [and fun for some of us watching it unfold] is increasing at Oral Roberts University. I suspect as this mess goes forward there will be LOTS of dirt coming out. It is also instructive that three of the university regents are also televangelists now under scrutiny by the Senate Finance Committee in respect to improper uses of non-profit funds for lavish lifestyles. True, I am perhaps biased, but I believe most of these folks are crooks hiding behind the shroud of religion in their quest for money and power. Pretending to preach the Gospels of Christ are merely a smoke screen. Here are some highlights:

The Plaintiffs . . . have asked the court for permission to expand the suit to include Oral Roberts Ministries and its Board of Directors, arguing that the ministry and university funds are commingled and, effectively, comprise a single entity. Additionally, subpoenas have been issued for the pilot of the university jet, the private investigator that took all those photos of Lindsay Roberts and her little buddy1, and the staffer who oversees work at the guardshack at the family compound. The university declined to comment.

Here’s what she [a former nanny] said she found [in the Roberts' closet]:

275 pairs of shoes for Lindsay Roberts, arranged by color on five shoe shelves taking up an entire wall. Richard Roberts had nearly 120 pairs of shoes, including 18 pairs of golf shoes of different colors. “It looked like a shoe store,” she said.

165 suits for Richard Roberts, of all different colors and patterns, were hanging in the closet. There were 454 ties.

Two “huge cases” of jewelry belonging to Lindsay Roberts.

In the bedroom was an entire dresser of unopened men’s dress shirts, in addition to the 50 hanging, pressed dress shirts in the closet. “Rows and rows” of shirts, blouses, dresses and other clothing hung on Lindsay’s side of the closet, Culpepper said, but the woman’s shoe collection stuck out the most.

It surely does not seem to jive with Jesus' directive to sell all that you have and give to the poor. Lindsay Roberts must be channelling Imelda Marcos.

Yet Another GOP Sex Scandal

It seems to be now that there is another GOP sex scandal about every week, most of them involving gay sex issues. The latest involves the chairman of the Republican Party in Brown County, Wisconsin who has been charged with soliciting sex from an under aged boy. As Pam Spaulding has said, the GOP is the gift that just keeps on giving. These Republicans make gays at your local gay bars look like abstinence only practitioners. Here are some highlights from the Green Bay Press-Gazette (http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071013/GPG0101/710130528/1207/GPGnews):

The chairman of the Republican Party in Brown County faces criminal charges for allegedly fondling a 16-year-old Ethan House runaway and providing the boy with beer and marijuana late last year. Donald Fleischman, 37, of Allouez, was charged last month with two counts of child enticement, two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a child and a single charge of exposing himself to a child. He was summoned to Brown County court for his initial appearance on Sept. 28. He is free having posted a signature bond as his promise to return to court.

Green Bay police went to Fleischman's Goodell Street home Nov. 19, 2006, looking for two runaways from Ethan House, a juvenile facility on nearby Emilie Street, according to the criminal complaint filed Sept. 7. Fleischman opened the door and allowed officers inside where they found a 16-year-old boy hiding on the floor of a walk-in closet wearing only underwear and a T-shirt, the complaint said. Officers found a black, purple and blue-swirled glass pipe in the living room, which tested positive for marijuana residue, the complaint said. Police returned to Fleischman's home on Dec. 8, 2006, and found the boy there again. He had been a runaway from Ethan House for eight days.

The teen, now 17, told authorities Fleischman took him to a hotel in Appleton during that time and then to a cabin near Florence for several days before returning to Fleischman's Allouez home. The boy said Fleischman provided him with beer and marijuana, the complaint said. The boy told police that when he would go to bed, Fleischman would fondle him and that on one occasion he awoke to find Fleischman at the foot of his bed masturbating.

Fleischman has resigned his post with the Brown County Republicans, said Kirsten Kukowski, communications director for the Republican Party of Wisconsin. If convicted on both felonies and all three misdemeanors, Fleischman faces 52 years in prison.

A copy of the criminal complaint against Fleischman is here: http://www.wispolitics.com/1006/071012FleischmanCourt.pdf. I can hardly wait to hear what far fetched excuse Fleischman gives to try to explain away these "mis-steps." I'm sure Norfolk's Nick Rerras would blame it on demon possession.